by Mark Harritt
“Alright, one, two, three . . . GO!”
Four rifles came up and coughed death at the robots in front and behind. Mike started running, trying to keep up with Everett and Mickey. Behind him, he heard Tom and Rob moving to a chorus of “Set!” and “Moving!”
At the connecting streets, Mickey moved right and Everett moved left. Mike heard the bark of their rifles as they found more targets. He hurtled past the destroyed robot in the middle of the intersection, hearing Matki’s footsteps pounding behind him. Matki could have left him behind, but he knew Mike needed to clear the building.
Mike didn’t have time to look left or right, knowing that Everett and Mickey would deal death to anything that might hit them from those directions. Mike ran into the building to clear it. There wasn’t anything on the first floor, so he ran up the stairs. He was prepared, but it was still a shock to see the construct in the room, head down like a dog sniffing, though Mike knew it was using its sensors. He put two double taps into it and it went down. It didn’t even have a chance to turn.
Mike yelled, “Clear!” He turned and yelled at Matki, “Stay here!” He pulled out his pistol, and handed it to Matki. Mike pointed at a corner away from the steps, and Matki went over to the corner, facing the top of the steps, the pistol ready but pointed down at the ground. Mike left Matki on the second floor, and ran back down.
More gunshots rang out. Mike did a tally in his head. At least two down in the initial volley, two more from the streets Everett and Mickey cleared, then this one, so five down. Mike ran back to the door. He looked out, and Tom had just reached the doorway, turned around and yelled, “Set!”
Rob yelled, “Moving,” then turned and ran back toward the building. A shadow came out of the mist, and two rifles came up simultaneously. Mike had to hold his shot because Rob veered into his line of fire. Tom was able to make the shot, and the shadow went down.
Mike stepped back, and Rob bolted past him, going to the back of the room, where he put his back to the wall, faced the door, holding his rifle at low ready. Everett and Mickey were shooting at something Mike couldn’t see.
“Ev, Mick, we’re in!”
Everett and Mickey turned, and started running. Both rifles lifted, and if Mike didn’t know them, he would have sworn they were aiming at each other. Both rifles barked. They were shooting past each other, into the mist.
Tom squeezed off one more shot. Mike saw another shadow hit the ground. Mike stepped back, and first Mickey, then Everett ran into the room. Tom pulled back away from the door.
Everybody was away from the door. All weapons were at the low ready.
The shadows hit the door at once. Five weapons raised, and thunder cracked in the room as they all fired simultaneously. The smell of smokeless gunpowder filled the air. The silence deafened after the initial volley. Nothing moved. Everybody’s concentration was fixed on the door. Three of the constructs were wedged into the door, heads shattered, lens cracked, sensors smashed.
“Up the stairs!” Mike yelled. He was set next to the stairs, watching for anything else that might clear the doorway. Tom peeled back first, and headed up the stairs. Rob was next, then Mickey. Everett pulled back, and another robot tried to clear the door. Mike shot the robot as Everett ran past, the thing right on his six. Another one tried to leap over, and Mike put it down. He felt a hand on his collar, and heard Mickey’s voice, “Mike, back up the steps, Rob’s covering you.”
Mike started walking backwards up the steps, ready for anything else that might come through the door. He passed Rob, who was squatting on the steps, ready to shoot anything that came at Mike. Rob shot three more times, then jumped up and ran up the three remaining steps.
Everett and Tom dropped the door over the hole to the steps. They slammed the headboard down onto the door. Something slammed into the door, and Everett shot through it. He must have hit it, because the door didn’t move again. Mike looked around and saw the dead robot, and yelled at Mickey to help him. The thing was heavy, and Tom grabbed part of it to help. They drug it over, then lifted it and set down on top of the headboard. They stood there, staring at the door, wondering if anything else was going to try and come through.
Mike looked up and saw the open windows, “Tom, Rob, Mickey, see if you can kill anything from the windows.”
They ran over to the windows, and pulled the shutters back, some of them falling off of the wall as they touched them. They started shooting at the shadows in the fog. Evidently, the robots were learning. The gunshots died down as the robots realized they were in range and moved back. Soon, there was nothing else to shoot at.
“ACE report,” Mike yelled.
Everett, Mickey, Rob, and Tom called out, one after the other, “Green, Green, Green,” to indicate they were good on ammunition, no injuries, and everybody had their equipment.
Mike turned to Matki. Matki grinned again, and gave a thumbs up. Mike noticed that Matki had his finger along the slide of the pistol to keep his finger off the trigger until he needed to shoot.
Matki followed Mike’s line of sight, and his grin grew wider, “See, I did learn.”
Mike grinned back at him, “Yes, you did.” Mike heard Rob cursing and turned around to see what’s up.
The team watched Rob curse, walk back and forth, and kick the wall in frustration. Finally the cursing died down, and Rob looked up. He caught everybody staring at him, “What?”
“You okay?” Mike asked.
Rob waved off the question, “Of course I’m okay.”
“What’s the matter?”
Rob shook his head, “What’s the matter? Let’s see, uh, nuclear war, accidently sent to the future, attacked by some kind of giant, lizard Medusa dragons, parrot headed hairy lizards the size of horses, packs of predator bears, and now,” he paused for a quick breath, “Freaking killer robots!” He thought for a second, “Oh yeah, and giant terror birds.”
Tom spit on the floor, “Don’t know about the killer part. The robots don’t seem to be too good at that. Hell, I killed five of them myself.”
Mickey shrugged, “I like the giant terror birds. Tasty.”
Rob glared at Tom, then Mickey, his frustration diverted. “Really?” he asked, the single word dripping sarcasm.
Mickey hooked his thumb over at Mike, “It’s his fault.”
A confused look played over Mike’s face, “How the hell is it my fault?”
“Murphy man. Come on, Mike, you know it’s true. Just sayin’.”
Mike shook his head, “So, you’re sayin’, since I pissed off Murphy, we’ve had a nuclear attack, been sent to the future, been attacked by dragons and killer robots?”
Mickey smirked, then shrugged, “It’s a theory.”
Mike stared at him, dumbfounded.
Tom’s rifle shot up into the ready position. Everybody went quiet, ready for another round of fighting.
“What do you see, Tom?”
“Nothing definitive. Thought I saw movement, back in the fog.”
They relaxed. Mike walked over to Matki, and Matki handed back the pistol. Mike pulled the magazine out, checked the bullets in the magazine, and then slammed the magazine back into the magazine well. He did a press check to confirm there was still a round in the chamber, then he holstered the pistol. He looked back at the robot lying on the door. He walked over and looked down at it. It was just as lethal as the one they found in the city center.
“Not so bad ass now, are they?” Rob asked.
Mike shook his head, “No, not for us. We had guns, though. Imagine you’re one of the townspeople here, no guns, only hand tools. Things wouldn’t have worked out so well for us.”
Everett nodded, “Bad things, my friend. I’m just glad they played their hand so soon. What would have happened if they caught us in the open?”
Mike nodded, “Yeah, they could have hit us from every direction. We would have gone down, hard.”
“More bones for the city, waiting for somebody else to find this hell hole,”
Rob mused.
Mike looked around the room, “So, any ide . . .”
Something slammed into the door. The door lifted slightly, but it settled back down. They turned in a silent ballet of economical motion and muscle memory. Weapons went up, ready to shoot anything that might try to get in. It was ominously silent as they waited for the other shoe to drop. Ten seconds, thirty seconds, one minute, five minutes passed as they waited. Finally, Tom lowered his rife, and everybody else followed suit.
Mike continued, “Alright, before I was interrupted, I was about to ask, any ideas?”
Everett thought a moment, then replied, “Well, I don’t want to leave this house until that damn fog clears. I want some distance to engage so they can’t rush us.”
Tom nodded, “Yeah, I agree. Easier to figure out how many there are out there as well. There could be a hundred of them out there in the fog. We’d never know until it’s too late.”
Mike concurred, “That’s what I was thinking. We’ll have to lay low here until the conditions change. Once that happens, we can figure out what we’re going to do.”
----------------------------------------------------
The A.I. tasted the signal on the electronic wind. Seventeen hunter killers and one scout were no longer reporting and assumed destroyed. Losses like this were unexpected. The use of advanced ballistic weapons was unprecedented, hinting at a manufacturing base undetected on this world.
Two things happened when the analysis was complete. First, a signal was sent to another A.I., one higher on the administrative chain than the local A.I. The second was the initialization of another type of robot. The basic hunter killers couldn’t deal with the problem. This one should have no problem doing so. It was unfortunate that the second warrior class hunter killer was unrepairable. The mechanical spiders skittered away to perform maintenance on the warrior robot. It would take some time to get the internal electronic and mechanical systems spooled up and working. Then analysis would have to be done multiple times to ensure all software and hardware was working within acceptable parameters.
Electricity fed into the large robot. It shifted, its central motor growling like a wounded animal, servos groaning from disuse. Sensors lit up as the central processor received its mission. The mission was search and destroy. It would complete its mission and then the central processor could slip back into its electronic sleep.
----------------------------------------------------
“Damn, I didn’t think it would take this long,” Rob sighed.
It was still foggy outside. It was the beginning of the third day since they’d fought the robots. There hadn’t been anymore attempts to get into the room. This respite didn’t comfort anybody, knowing that the robots were out there somewhere. The team took shifts watching for the hostile constructs, but they only saw shadows in the fog. They couldn’t tell what the shadows were, but nobody wanted to go and find out, either.
It was morning twilight, and the sun would be coming up soon. Mike was hoping the fog would lift, just like he’d been hoping it would on the previous two days. The food was gone. They were getting hungry. They needed to hunt.
Everett looked at Mickey, “Fillet Mignon.”
Mickey was seated next to a wall, his head leaning back, touching the wall. Mickey nodded, “Good one. I have to go with the classic though. Cheeseburger.”
Everett sighed, “Yeah, but a thick one, with bacon and blue cheese. And red onions, the sweet ones.”
Mickey glanced over at Everett, “I didn’t know you were a foodie.”
Everett shrugged, “Well, I do like the Food Channel. Not really a foodie. I like some interesting combinations though.”
Tom laughed. Everett looked over at him, “What?”
“I’ve played this game before, but it’s usually, “What are you going to eat when you get back, Big Mac or the Whopper. You guys take it to a whole different level.”
“God, I wish you guys would stop talking about food. I’m hungry enough as it is,” Rob bitched.
Mickey looked over at Rob, “What would be the first thing you eat if you went back?”
“Oh, there’s no competition. Cubano, of course, mom’s home cooking. Nothing like my mom’s cooking in the world.”
The team grew silent as they thought about the people that they left behind.
He looked over at Mike, “What about you?”
Mike thought back to his previous life, “I’m more of a mushroom and Swiss burger kind of guy. I do love me some bacon, though. If it came down to it, I’d have to say, my pork loin. I miss cooking on the weekends.”
Rob looked around the room, and then up at the ceiling, “Man, my life sucks.”
Tom nodded, “Yeah, right now, I’m beginning to think going out there and shooting them until there ain’t any of them left is a very good idea.”
Mike spoke, “Well, I’m hoping that either the wind kicks up, or the sun burns away the fog today, because I really don’t want to stay in here any longer.”
Tom slapped at a no-see-um, “You know, one day, we’re going to look back on this day and laugh about it.”
Everett leaned his head back, evidently interested in seeing what Rob found so interesting, “Yeah, but today isn’t that day.” It was his turn to sigh, “Ah, the glorious life of the Green Beret. Trapped in a building, surrounded by killer robots,” He started singing, “Fighting Soldiers from the Sky, Fearless Men who Jump and Die.”
“Yeah, I never liked that song. The last thing I want to do, is jump and die. I think they could have written a better line than that one,” Tom pointed out.
Rob snapped his fingers, “Damn, I forgot.”
Mickey looked at Rob, “What did you forget?”
“The satellite.”
Everett looked at Rob, “What satellite?”
Mike didn’t say anything, but he listened to the conversation.
“A few nights ago, I was watching some shooting stars,” Rob explained.
“Meteors,” Tom corrected.
Everett waved Tom’s correction off, “Shush, Tom. I want to hear this.”
Rob continued, “Yeah, you remember when I was first assigned to the team and we went to Columbia?”
Everett nodded, “Yeah, I remember that.”
“Bob and I were doing a commo check with the SATCOM, and he pointed out a satellite in the night sky to me. Well, I saw something like that,” he explained. “It stayed on course, didn’t veer, and didn’t leave a trail of fire like a meteor.”
Everett cursed and looked over at Mike, “Man, it just keeps getting better. Killer robots and satellites. Whoever owns those robots may have been watching us the entire time.”
“What are we going to do?” Rob asked.
Mike looked at him, “Same thing we always do. Take out the threat.”
Mike stood up and walked over to the window. It was early, and the day hadn’t broken yet. There wasn’t any wind. Tendrils of fog still swirled outside. He turned back to the room.
“Well?” Everett asked.
Mike shook his head. Groans filled the room.
Mickey stared at the door on the floor, “Man, I wish they’d just start attacking so that we could kill them until there aren’t any left to kill.”
Mike smiled, “Well, unfortunately, they don’t seem to be that stupid. Forgive me if I don’t want to die in a blaze of glory.”
Matki looked around at his friends. He grinned and slapped his hands together, “Well my friends it is not so bad. At the least we are not taking the ‘dirt nap.’” Matki beamed, proud of his mastery of English slang, completely unaware of his odd phrasing.
Mike and the rest of the team grinned at Matki. Matki continued, “But, since we need to wait, how about I make us all some tea.”
Rob smiled at Matki, “That, my friend, is a stellar idea.”
They snagged their canteen cups and handed them over to Matki. He arranged the kindling and made a small fire. Matki arranged the cups close to
the fire. He poured the herbs into the cup, and then poured water over them. He stirred it with a plastic MRE spoon that had mysteriously survived the past six months. The water bubbled in the canteen cups, and when it began to overflow, he moved each canteen cup a little further away from the fire. He stepped the tea until he judged it to be perfect, then he started passing out the cups.
“Matki, what would we do without you?” Everett asked.
“I think your expression is, that you would have to ‘embrace the suck,’” Matki replied.
Everett almost spit his tea back up, and started laughing, “I think you’re right, my friend.”
Tom brought his tea up to his lips, and then stopped, and turned his head to the side, almost like he was trying to remember something.
Mike caught the strange movement, “Hey, what’s up Tom?”
Tom held up his hand to silence Mike. The other guys looked over at him, questioning looks on their faces. Tom leaned forward, and picked up his rifle. The questioning looks became looks of concern. Tom saw the looks. He smiled, “Don’t worry. I think I just felt a breeze. I’m going to check.”
He walked over to the window and looked out. He turned around, “I think we have a breeze. The fog seems to be moving.”
Mike looked at him, “Don’t get my hopes up.”
Minutes passed, and the fog seemed to be thinning. Part of that might be the sun rising higher in the morning sky.
Tom lifted his rifle, sighting through the scope. They watched as he took it off safe, and began to squeeze the trigger. Mike sat down his canteen cup and covered his ears. The other four did the same.
Tom’s rifle barked, and he continued staring through the scope. He turned to them with a smile, “Fog’s clearing. I just got another one.”
Rob surged up, “Hell yeah, let’s go kill something.”
Mike smiled, “Take a chill pill, Rob. They’ll still be out there. Let’s finish the tea. Hopefully the fog will lift some more. Then, maybe we can see how many are out there. Once we know what we’re up against, we can go out and do some damage.” He took a sip of his tea, “Remember, there are old soldiers, and bold soldiers, but no old, bold soldiers.” He waved for Rob to sit back down. Tom walked over, sat down, and grinned at Mike. He sipped his tea.